


only if for a night

by nowrunalong



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Dimension Cannon, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2015-03-02
Packaged: 2018-03-15 22:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3465008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowrunalong/pseuds/nowrunalong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose comes across an (un)familiar face as she travels across the dimensions to find the Doctor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	only if for a night

They say that everyone knows everyone in a small town. That in a population of a couple thousand, the butcher knows the teacher knows the pastor knows the mailman. And maybe that’s true.

Despite the similar population and close proximity of the people, however, the same can’t be said for large schools. There are a few figures that most people recognize, of course. The captain of the cheerleading team. That girl who made it to the Olympics for swimming. The local drug dealer. But there are dozens, hundreds, even, of students who skirt around the edges, unseen. Sometimes they don’t even see each other. It depends who’s looking up.

The leader of the book club—a short, well-liked brunette—only runs into the bleached blonde with the radiant smile once. The brunette helps out at the library: she’s there Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The blonde borrows a book for a class project on a Monday. The shorter girl has read it before; she tells the blonde to concentrate on the notes written in the margins. The blonde brings it back that Thursday.

It’s years before they see each other again.

—

After a dozen jumps using Torchwood’s dimension canon, Rose Tyler is exhausted. Each jump takes its toll on her, physically and mentally. She’s not superstitious, but Mickey is. Concerned, he wishes her good luck as she hits the button and disappears for the thirteenth time.

The first thing Rose wonders as her surroundings solidify around her is if they have motels on planets other than Earth. If they do, she supposes they probably wouldn’t have neon signs written in English.

The sign doesn’t do much for the place. The ‘E’ is broken so it reads “MOT L - Free Wi-Fi”. It’s a little beaten-looking: the paint is peeling. There’s only one car in the parking lot.

Rose has visited a lot of planets and she’s never seen wi-fi anywhere other than Earth. This gets her hopes up a little bit, but not too much: she’s seen two more parallel versions of her home planet since she started jumping. She’ll have to have a look around.

At least there are no zeppelins in the sky.

—

It’s already getting dark and while Rose is frustrated she won’t be able to have a good look at her surroundings tonight, at least she’s landed conveniently near a place she can spend the night—and there aren’t any aliens after her.

She hides her gun and books a room. The bed isn’t bad for the price; Rose has slept in worse. She can hear her neighbour’s music through the paper-thin walls, though. Duran Duran? Rose frowns; she’s not a fan. She considers knocking on the wall but, deciding that would probably aggravate rather than solve problems, she leaves her room again and knocks on the door beside her own.

The woman who answers looks a similar age to Rose, or perhaps a little older. She’s shorter, though, with soft brown hair and a patterned dress.

“Hello! I’m sorry! Is my music too loud? I was the only one here when I came in an hour ago, so I didn’t think I’d bother anyone. I can turn it down.”

She speaks quickly; Rose doesn’t even get a chance to open her mouth.

“Yeah, that was it.” Rose smiles tiredly. “I just got here.”

Frowning, the brunette seems to notice the lack of a second car in the lot. “Where’d you park?”

“I was dropped off.”

Lying is second nature to Rose now. It’s an invaluable skill: she had to learn, just like she had to learn to shoot and dodge bullets.

“Anyways,” Rose continues, “I’ll just… leave you now. Sorry to bother you so late.” She doesn’t need to apologize—it hadn’t been _her_ music that was too loud—but she likes to be careful around people she meets in parallel worlds.

“It’s no bother! Sorry about the music.” The woman smiles, friendly dimples forming in her cheeks. Something about that smile seems distantly familiar.

“Hang on—have I seen you before?”

“Have you?”

Rose frowns, thinking.

“Hmm. Maybe not.”

“Goodnight, Rose.”

Rose stops mid-turn to whip back to face the other woman, her hair flying around behind her.

“What did you say?”

The other woman doesn’t blink.

“I said goodnight.”

“You said my name.”

“Did I?”

“Yes,” Rose narrows her eyes, “you said: ‘goodnight, Rose’. I don’t remember you telling you my name. Actually, I make a point _not_ to tell people.”

“That’s odd. Why wouldn’t you want people to know your name?”

Rose ignores the question.

“I’m warning you: I have a gun.”

She’s bluffing and it’s obvious. The gun is back in her room. The brunette puts her hands up anyways, still smiling, still unfazed.

“Relax, Rose. I have a message for you.”

“Lucky me.” Her tone is sharp but her curiosity gets the better of her. “From who?”

Rose takes a step closer. She’s taller than the other girl, but without her gun she still doesn’t make an especially menacing figure.

“From you.”

The blonde freezes in the doorway.

“How do I know I can trust you?” She’s still wary.

“You told me to tell you these two words first: The Doctor.”

“What about him? _Do you know where he is?_ ”

The brunette sighs.

“Look, d’you want this message or not?”

Rose is silent.

“You’re not in the right place. Well, you’re in the right place, but the wrong time. You’re too far in the Doctor’s timeline. He’s not who you’re looking for anymore. You need to go backwards from here. Backwards in my timeline, back before I knew him. You asked me to help you.”

Rose can’t help her face from falling, can’t stop herself feeling devastated. She’s so close, but not close enough. And now she’s learned more about the Doctor’s future than she wanted to know. He changes again, and presumably, she’s not longer with him. Not if he’s with this… short Northerner.

Right now, where she is? Is this after she dies? Or is she separated from him again? It certainly doesn’t _feel_ too far from her own time.

“How can you help me?”

Her voice has gotten smaller.

“I can help direct your jump.”

“How d’you know?”

“Trust me. Rose. Please? I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Rose nods.

“Alright. Let me get my things.”

“You’re leaving now?”

Rose fixes her with a steady gaze, her face a little more determined now, and doesn’t answer.

—

They’re standing next to the brunette’s bed, Rose’s gun slung over her shoulder. 

The other woman takes Rose’s hand.

“There’s a specific moment in time you need to get back to. You’ll understand when you get there.”

Rose nods.

“Wait—what’s your name?”

“Clara."

The brunette smiles and closes her eyes, concentrating hard before speaking again.

“Good luck.”

Rose presses the button and disappears.

—

Rose appears on a residential street. Judging by the sun, it’s early morning.

“ _How did you do that?_ ”

The voice is familiar.

Rose panics momentarily. She didn’t accidentally bring Clara along with her, did she? Was that what the brunette wanted? Transportation to some other point in time?

But Clara’s eyes are narrowed, suspicious. There’s no recognition there. Rose has travelled to a point earlier in the girl’s own timeline, just like she’d implied.

“Uh. Just a trick. Hello! I’m Rose.”

Rose smiles, trying to cover up that she’d appeared out of thin air. She doesn’t succeed.

“Right.”

The brunette seems more skeptical than afraid but still takes a step back.

“Don’t go. Clara.”

“How d’you know my name?”

“I need your help.”

“I don’t even know you.” The first flicker of doubt and fear appear on Clara’s face.

Rose wasn’t positive but she felt that she needed one more jump. That she was close to when but not _quite_ where she was supposed to be. Clara had only gotten her so far.

“Please. I have something to tell you.”

—

“So one day I’m going to run into you again and give you a message. That you’ve—what? ‘Landed' in the right place, wrong time?"

“That’s right.”

Clara sighs.

“I want to say you’re mad, but you don’t look it. And you did appear in the street like some kind of magic trick.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I swear it’s true. It’ll all make sense when you meet the Doctor.”

“He’s the hardest part to believe in your whole story.”

Rose grins, but the smile slides off her face when she thinks about jumping again.

“What if I can’t find him?”

“You will.”

Clara’s tone is kind, reassuring.

“The part of your story I do believe is that you love him. You’ll find your way back again.”

“I didn’t say—“

“I know.”

Rose shakes her head. “I don’t know how, Clara. You did something before… later? Just concentrated on your timeline to send me back here. I’ve never managed to do that before.”

“Well, you’re looking for the Doctor, so it’s his timeline you need to think about now. You know him. You’re close the right time—listen to me, talking as if this time-travelling is really possible—and now you need to find the right place.”

Clara took Rose’s hand in hers like she’d done—would do?—in the motel years later. 

“Concentrate.”

Rose closes her eyes like she’d seen the other woman do and thinks about the Doctor. She thinks about his familiar face, the brown suit he always wore, his ear-to-ear grin, the sound of his laugh, the way his hand felt in hers.

“Good luck, Rose.”

Rose presses the button and disappears.

—

She can feel immediately that she’s where she needs to be. Trouble is brewing: the Doctor is here. Clutching her gun to her chest, she looks up at the planets that have appeared in the sky. After all she’s been through these past few years, she’s only slightly surprised to see them there.

“Now we’re in trouble.”

—

That night, they dream about their old school. The brunette sees Rose as she was that day: she’s dressed in pink, her blonde hair glittering gold in the sunlight that streams into the library. Rose sees Clara as she was today: she tells her to concentrate.

_And I heard your voice / As clear as day / And you told me I should concentrate / It was all so strange / And so surreal / That a ghost should be so practical / Only if for a night._


End file.
